Migrants killed in road accident
Children among dead as traffickers’ lorry crashes through barrier in Turkey
TWENTY-TWO people, including children, were killed when a lorry carrying migrants crashed in the western Turkish province of Izmir yesterday.
The mangled wreckage of the open-topped truck lay toppled over in a canal, 20 metres below a major road from which it apparently fell after crashing through a barrier.
Thirteen people were injured and taken by ambulance to nearby hospitals.
A state prosecutor has launched an investigation into the crash and the truck driver was facing arrest after hospital treatment.
According to the private Demiroren news agency (DHA), the truck’s passengers were foreign migrants who had reached a deal with traffickers to be transported by boat to the Greek island of Samos south of Izmir.
Nine of those injured were children, DHA said. It was not clear where the migrants were from.
Turkey became one of the main launch points for more than a million migrants taking the sea route to European Union countries in 2015, many of whom were fleeing conflict and poverty in the Middle East and Africa.
The influx of migrants was drastically curtailed by a 2016 accord between Ankara and the EU after hundreds died crossing to Greek islands a few miles off Turkey.
The truck driver is believed to have lost control of the vehicle and it crashed at around 8am in the Gaziemir district, near the airport south of Izmir city.
A CNN Turk correspondent at the scene said emergency workers had worked to retrieve the dead and wounded trapped beneath the truck.